Remiss
by DC4U
Summary: Dee had known that something was wrong, but he had hoped that, just this once, his instincts had failed him.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Currently Untitled

Author: honigjaeger

Note: Posting this for a friend who doesn't have a FF account but writes awesome stories. Posting this story with permission.

Rating: M – for later chapters

Warnings this chapter: some language

Chapter One

Ryo wasn't answering his phone. It wasn't like Ryo, especially as Dee couldn't recall any reason for why he should be ignoring him. To his knowledge, he had done nothing to piss his partner off recently.

He glared at his phone as if it was responsible for Ryo not picking up before dialing again. Speed-dial one, just like vice-versa. Really, Ryo ought to at least tell him when they weren't talking to each other.

Second shift wasn't quite over with, but nothing was happening and all that was left to do was paperwork. He had been planning to head over to Ryo's later, but now it would have to be earlier.

Dee slipped his jacket on and walked across the room, leaning back against one of the desk with a pack of cigarette lifted up to his lips so he could tug one out.

"Hey, JJ, would you do me a favor?" Dark hair fell in front of eyes like a curtain as he lit one, the green gaze reflecting the flame as he watched his colleague. He braced himself for the expected reaction. It wasn't easy being irresistible.

The way JJ's eyes instantly told from normal to creepily big and sparkly was frightening and Dee leaned back a bit, just in case.

"Of course, Dee, my beloved, anything for you to proof my love and devotion!"

"Awesome." There was one up-side to Ryo not being here, it made it a lot easier to leech off JJ. "I've still got some reports to finish, they are on my desk." He pushed away from the table and side-stepped a tackle with practiced elegance. "Thanks!"

He headed towards the door when he heard JJ, who was getting back on his feet, call after him. "How am I supposed to finish them? I wasn't there."

"I dunno. Make something up, it's what I would do. It's not like the old badger gives a fuck. Hey, chief." The last to words were added when the chief suddenly appeared. Not wasting any more time, Dee was already out the room by the time that tirade started.

It might not always be easy, but every now and then, it sure paid off to be irresistible, Dee thought to himself. He got into his car, dialing again with his left hand while he started the motor. No answer. "Fine, go ahead and ignore me," Dee mumbled, fingers playing along the steering wheel nervously when he turned to join the steady stream of traffic. It just wasn't like Ryo not to answer his phone.

The streets weren't as crowded as usual. In New York, leaving work some minutes sooner could make you be home two hours earlier if you timed it right. Dee was a master at this art, developed over years of getting away from work the moment he could or sooner. Today, too, he had managed to avoid the worst traffic. He slammed the door shut and approached the apartment building one hand in his pocket. Dee looked up to check whether there was any light on, but all of Ryo's windows were dark. Damn.

The way up the flight of stairs to Ryo's apartment was so familiar that he could have walked it with his eyes closed. He fumbled for his keys. Of course, Ryo had been reluctant to actually give him his own set of keys for a long time, but Dee had made a very good case for himself by the second time Ryo had found his lock broken and himself handcuffed to the headboard with a very horny Dee on top. Sometimes it was just too much to ask him to control certain urges. Not that that it had ever stepped Ryo from trying.

Since Ryo had decided that giving him his own keys would be easier on his wallet, Dee was now able to unlock the door and walk inside the apartment.

"Ryo?," he called out, one hand sliding through dark hair as he looked around. After a short pause he added, "Bikky?" though he knew the teen wouldn't be here, something about a school-trip or other, if he recalled right.

All that answered him was his echo and his heart was beating a bit faster in his chest. This just didn't feel right.

"Fuck this," he mumbled and walked through an empty living room to the kitchen. Clean as always, no dirty dishes stashed on the counter like at his place, everything cleaned up. All in all, nothing out of the ordinary. Without thinking, Dee checked the fridge, but then halted in getting a beer out and decided to first check Ryo's bedroom. Perhaps his partner was sick and too proud to ask for help again.

Dee slowly treaded into the room, suddenly finding it a bit harder to breathe. He was on the edge and hopting there was no reason to be. No sign of Ryo, apart from an unmade bed. Which, on second thought, was a damn disconcerting thought. Ryo always made his bed. It was a damn annoying habit, too, Dee couldn't even count the times he had been thrown out of bed just so Ryo would have time to make it before work, costing them five precious cuddle-minutes.

He put one hand on the sheets, just to check whether they might still be warm. Negative.

"Alright, Ryo, I swear to God, if I find you hiding with Berk in the closet, I will kill you and kick your ass."

There was no one in the closet, either.

Dee slammed shut the door to the closet and started to pace from the bedroom to the living room and back again. He was trying very hard to be rational instead of freaking out and it wasn't working.

Then his phone rang. He pulled it out so fast that it fell to the ground, but it kept ringing, and Dee crouched down to get it back. One look at the screen before he picked up.

"Ryo? What the fuck do you think you are doing, not picking up your damn phone? How hard can that even be, you just have to push the damn green button! I better hope for you that you have a damn good excuse for doing this. Where the hell are you? Not at the precinct, not at your place and it's not as if you have a fucking life outside of work, you damn workaholic!"

He had to take a break from yelling in order to breathe. The voice from the other end of the line cut into the sudden silence. It wasn't Ryo's.

"Twelve missed calls from this number. It seems like your Ryo isn't the only one who doesn't have a life, Mister...Dee."

"And who the fuck are you supposed to be?" Someone had Ryo's phone. Shit. Dee had known that something was wrong, but he had hoped that just this once his instincts had failed him.

"That doesn't concern you."

"Like hell this doesn't concern me! Listen, asshole, I don't know why you stole Ryo's phone, but I can tell you that it wasn't a very smart move."

"Then I guess it's lucky that I haven't technically stolen it." The hint of amusement to the cold voice wasn't pleasant.

"Technically, huh?"

"Yes. I suppose, techically, it is your Ryo I stole. He just came with the phone."

Dee's heart stopped for a moment.

Stole Ryo. His heart was beating again and it was beating too fast. "Why?"

"Let me explain to you. It's Dee Laytner, right?"

"Detective Laytner, for you, asshole," Dee corrected automatically, wishing he could shoot someone through the phone.

"Detective. Of course." The voice sounded more disbelieving, but that was hardly Dee's major problem right now. "See, there is a case you are working on right now. I am sure you know which one I mean."

"...yes." There was only one case that stood out enough to warrant this.

"I will need the files you have on that. All of them. No copies left behind."

Dee wanted to scream at him again, but he stayed quiet and listened. It was just a voice right now, and yet the hatred he felt made it hard to breathe.

"Now, Detective Laytner, of course I could have just asked you or your partner, but I prefer to up the stakes right away. I'm sure you understand. I don't like playing around."

Dee's green eyes closed and he counted to three. It was something Ryo had, more than once, told him to do and it hurt to remember the advice right now. But it did help make his voice sound calm. "I want to talk to Ryo."

"Detective Maclean, you mean." The mocking tone wasn't helping Dee's temper.

"Fuck you, asshole," he mumbled, listening careful to the sounds on the other end of the line as, he assumed, the phone was moved.

"Your partner," he heard a different voice, probably informing Ryo, before he finally heard the man himself speak.

"Dee?"

"What the fuck are you doing, Ryo? Making me worry like this. I'll get wrinkles and turn ugly."

"A sad day for the men and women of New York, I'm sure." Dee could imagine those dark eyes roll, dark enough to see himself in them. His chest hurt.

"It would be." Focus, he had to focus. "Where are you? How did this happen?"

"I don't know, Dee. Some warehouse down by...-ow!" The slap had been hard enough for Dee to hear it through the phone and his hand clenched into a fist when he heard Ryo being told harshly to watch his mouth.

"Ryo?" His voice sounded too small, too helpless. Dee tried to swallow it down.

"Yes. I'm alright. Listen, Dee, promise me you won't give them the files."

"Are you fucking kidding me? They could hurt you, Ryo." Or worse. "Hell, they are hurting you."

"It's not that bad. Promise, Dee. You can't give them what they want."

"How can I not when they..." He stopped himself from saying it, though he was sure that Ryo knew how the sentence would have ended.

"Alright, that's enough." The voice was once again the first one. Dee tried not to allow himself to think about how easily this could have been the last time he talked to Ryo. Fuck this.

"Now, where were we. The files, right. Now, Detective Laytner, you will get those files to me and you will not try to trick me. Trust me, it wouldn't be very healthy for your partner."

"Fuck you," Dee said, but it was hard to bring the needed malice to the words with his chest still far too tight.

"In your partner's interest, I advise you not to talk to anyone about this and hurry with getting the files to me."

"Right." Thoughts flew through Dee's head as he tried to grab onto them, to form a plan. All he could focus on was the desperate hope of keeping Ryo from being hurt anymore. "I swear, if you hit him again..."

"Then what, Detective Layton?"

"..."

"That's right. Hurry. I will call again." With that, the line went dead. Dee glared at the phone before tightening his hand around it and taking a deep breath. He'd find a way, he thought, to keep the promise Ryo had demanded of him as well as the promise he made to himself. Not to let anyone hurt Ryo.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Charming man," the voice said to Ryo. Not just a voice to him, but a man with cold, grey eyes and a shaved head, staring down at him with just that bit too much intensity to make his gaze turn from focused to creepy. "Bit rough around the edges, but I guess that has a charm on it's own."

Ryo glared and spit on the ground he was kneeling on. He had attempted getting up two times before, but the blows to his face had made it clear that wasn't desired behavior from a captive and as, in turn, Ryo didn't desire getting slapped around, he stayed down now. With his hands tied together behind his back, palms facing outside, it wasn't as if he would have many more options on his feet. It was just a matter of pride.

Staying down didn't mean he had given up yet, though. He'd pretty much extracted the promise from Dee, and while the other man had undoubtedly been unhappy about it, Ryo knew he'd keep his word.

"Ýou are quite selfless, detective, telling your partner not to give up those files. Surely you don't value them higher than your life?" A short, harsh laugh and a moment later, Ryo's own gun was trained at him, the cold muzzle pressing against his forehead. "Or do you think you're immortal?"

Dark eyes narrowed even if his heart was beating harder in his chest at the feel of his gun pressed against his head. Nothing like...an entirely different feeling than when Dee had done something similar. More a chill inside than the warm rush of heat as his partner stepped closer. "No, just confident. Kill me, you lose your leverage." He pointed out.

"Smart guy," the bald man said, trailing the gun down the side of his face, a smirk appearing on his lips. "There are things we can do though, that are much worse than simply killing you. I'm sure you are aware of that, detective. Tell me..." He pulled the gun back and turned, gesturing to the towering man, skin tan by birth more than sun, who had hit Ryo before, "Do you think your partner is a smart guy, too, or should we give him a sign on how serious we are?"

The dark man smiled down at him, too wide to seem friendly, with an edge that was threatening. A metallic flick and quite suddenly, the edge of a knife was threatening to cut through the skin on Ryo's right cheek.

Ryo wasn't about to let himself be intimidated. Scratch that, anyone with half a brain would be nervous around someone that big and muscular pulling a knife out when they were bound. But he didn't let it show. At least, he tried not to, glaring up at the one talking to him and obviously calling the shots. "I"m sure he's quite aware. He deals with people like you everyday." And so do I. He clenched his jaw and turned his head to keep pressure of the blade off his skin.

"I see... I still wonder whether we should take our chances. After all, you told him not to give us the files." A hand clenching in Ryo's hair pulled his head back and the tip of the knife slowly ran along his neck.

"I'd be holding still now, if I were you." The dark man's voice was right by his ear, low and too intimate, with a hard to place accent.

Further away and, in contrast to the other man, in a detached, business-like manner, the bald man continued, "We might have to convince your partner not to listen to you. You clearly don't know what's best for you."

It was less the words and more the knife running along his neck that made Ryo hold as still as possible. He felt vulnerable the way he had to tilt his head a little to try and keep pressure from cutting his skin. Or so he hoped. The voice in his ear made the little hair on the back of his neck stand up and little goose bumps run along his arms. Too low, too intimate, and dangerous.

"Tell me, detective. Do you think your partner is going to listen to me or to you?" Kneeling on the ground, with his head forced back and the look on his face, failing to hide his fear, he had a hard time being as sure of his partner as he wanted to be.

Ryo growled, and as much as he wanted to say Dee would listen to him, he wasn't so sure. "You've made your point." He tried to glare at the man but it wasn't easy when his head was held back like that. "If you hurt me, he certainly isn't going to listen to you anymore."

"Why not? Seems like it would be a good incentive for him to hurry up and behave, don't you think?" A smirk appeared on the man's face for a moment and he took a step back.

"Milosh, get him to the backroom."

The delightful chuckle that order drew from the man with the knife wasn't very confidence inducing. Milosh, as captor number two was obviously called used his grip on Ryo's hair to make him get up.

"Come on, copper. We haven't got all night."

"You might just," the bald man mumbled, looking at Ryo's cellphone in his hand. Milosh smirked even wider.

Ryo winced and bit back a yelp as he was pulled up by his hair and struggled to his feet. The bindings of his wrist held, and it was impossible to even try finagling a way out of them with his palms outward like that. Milosh, tugged him toward the door behind them, but he tried to keep an eye on his phone for as long as he could to see if they were going to call Dee again. Just as the bald man lifted it to his ear, the door was shut and he lost sight of him.

The backroom was small, without windows, and just a single light-bulb to keep it from total darkness. Ryo was alone in the room with Milosh. He couldn't hear the other's voice through the metal door. That usually meant no one would be able to hear him on the outside, either.

"So, let's have fun," Milosh said and finally let go of his hair, giving him a hard shove between the shoulderblades that caused him to stumble further into the room. Somehow he doubted that he and Milosh had the same idea of fun.


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Remiss

Author: Alex and ravish

Note: This has turned into a co-author project.

Rating: M

Chapter Three

Dee spent the better part of a minute staring down at his phone. Like a cold hand a feel of helpless, desperate anger had gripped his heart and it took a while until he could think past it.

Throwing his phone against the wall probably wouldn't be the most constructive solution, he decided ultimately and slid it into his pocket instead.

Where the hell were his car keys? After a short, but frantic search, he discovered them in his jacket, where they always were. He also found a pack of cigarette, which was very welcomed.

'Ryo's going to kill me for smoking here', was the first clear thought in his mind as he slowly blew the smoke out and closed his eyes. Of course, Ryo had other worries right now, so he might be inclined to forgive him by the time he got him back home safe and sound.

Which he would, obviously. Dee didn't even entertain any other notion. He locked the door behind him and headed down the stairs.

He left the building with the cigarette clamped between his lips and his phone back in his hand. Just in case, he had to check the display again. No missed calls.

Damn stupid New York parking, too. I was only gone five minutes, asshole!, he grumbled to no one in particular as he tore the ticket from the windshield. Alright, so he was lucky he didn't get towed.

He'd let the department take care of the ticket, but for now he had other worries. The steady stream of cars didn't bode well, but he still pulled into traffic. Not as if he had a choice.

"The gas is on the right, you fucking idiot! Use it, will you?" Dee flicked the driver of the car he had been trailing behind until he just now finally managed to pull past him off, before he closed the window again.

It wasn't as if he had time to waste. Criminals in hostage situations were notoriously trigger-happy. Fuck, Ryo... Why did he have to do that to him, huh?

His phone rang and Dee glanced at the display. "Not now, you bastard." He certainly wasn't referring to the picture of Ryo flashing under his name, which was a rather lovely picture, for all that Ryo always insisted on not being photogenic. The insult was meant for the caller behind that number right now. He picked up, though he didn't want to.

"Yo, asshole."

"Your manners are lacking, detective."

"Whatcha gonna do? Sue me?"

"Very witty. I assume you have the files I want?"

"I'm not even there yet. It's NYC and I have a car, not a jetpack."

"Better hurry. You have an hour. Call me when you have it." The phone disconnected.

It just so happened that the traffic light before him turned red just then. With a heavy sigh, Dee let his head sink forward against the driver's wheel.

This day was really just great. His partner had been kidnapped, he was being blackmailed into handing over case files, he was stuck in traffic and now some idiot wouldn't stop honking.

Dee looked up to see who the idiot was, but the honking stopped when he lifted his forehead from the wheel. Oh.

He flashed his badge at the guy in the car to the right who was giving him the finger and sped up to pull in before him. Normally, he might have pulled him over, but right now he didn't have the time to harass civilians for being assholes. He had a hostage situation to deal with.

"Fuck, Ryo, if I get you out of there alive I'm going to kill you," he muttered to himself.

He'd been a police officer long enough to have seen and heard about hostage situations. Even when giving them what they wanted, very rarely did they ever return what was bargained for alive and in one piece.

Thing was, Dee needed Ryo in one piece. Ever since he had first met the other man, with every passing day, he had wanted him around more and more until he discovered that he needed him around.

He'd been interested in him from the start. Naturally, since Ryo was good looking and fascinating, with his mix of innocence and determination. But what had started as interest had grown and changed until he noticed that he was in love with him. The rest was history. An at times rather frustrating history filled with UST, getting cockblocked and many, many cold showers. But finally, it had paid off and he wouldn't let these assholes screw things up.

Who the hell knew enough about their case file to grab his partner like that? Or when? Ryo might be clueless on some things, but he could be damn observant about others.

He tried going over in his mind where they might have grabbed Ryo. Wait. The shithead's had his phone. Maybe he could get tech to track the GPS. Worth a shot, at least. These guys seemed to know what they were doing, but everyone had to make a mistake sometime, right?

With these thoughts, filling him just with a bit more hope, Dee parked his car in front of the precinct. He pulled the key out of the ignition and paused for a moment to check his phone. No missed calls, no messages and he still had forty-five minutes.

If Ryo was staying calm and levelheaded, instead of antagonizing his kidnappers, everything might still turn out okay.

"Don't do anything I would do," Dee muttered as he got out the car.


End file.
